Kitsap County seeks funds for inpatient mental health center

PORT ORCHARD — Kitsap County will pursue funding for an evaluation and treatment center to help meet demand for inpatient mental health beds in the region.

The center would provide 16 beds for for people experiencing acute psychiatric episodes. Kitsap Mental Health Services currently provides 15 evaluation and treatment beds for adults and 10 for children, and the facility is nearly always full.

Rochelle Doan with Kitsap Mental Health said the agency had to refer clients away for evaluation and treatment at other inpatient facilities 105 times between Jan. 1 and April 30 this year. Being able to serve more people in Kitsap would improve outcomes, Doan said.

"Being able to serve people in their own community is ideal in that it makes reentry and connection to services much stronger and helpful to recovery," she said.

“Being able to serve people in their own community is ideal in that it makes reentry and connection to services much stronger and helpful to recovery.”

Rochelle Doan, Kitsap Mental Health

Kitsap Human Services Director Doug Washburn said the county will apply for a state Department of Commerce grant to cover construction costs for the evaluation and treatment center, which would be built alongside the future crisis triage facility on Fuson Road in East Bremerton. Kitsap Mental Health would run the new center. Medicaid would fund operations.

Unlike the triage center, the evaluation and treatment center would be certified to receive patients who are admitted involuntarily. People suffering from a mental health condition can be detained involuntarily in Washington if they are deemed a risk to themselves or others.

Washburn said the county previously applied for a grant to build an evaluation and treatment center but was not funded.

Triage center opening this summer

While laying the groundwork for a new inpatient facility, the county has pushed the debut of its long-awaited crisis triage center to August.

The center, also to be operated by Kitsap Mental Health, is slated to open in a renovated Fuson Road building formerly home to the Kitsap Recovery Center. Washburn said dry rot was discovered in the entrance to the building, delaying the opening by several weeks.

Once up and running, the triage center will provide beds for up to 16 patients experiencing mental health crises, who might otherwise wind up in jail or an emergency room. A separate "substance use disorder residential facility" will offer an additional 16 beds where patients can stay for up to 30 days.

The remodel was paid for by a Department of Commerce grant and money from the county's sales tax for mental health services. The Recovery Center relocated to Port Orchard.

The outpatient center will provide medication-assisted treatments including methadone and buprenorphine (or Suboxone) and Vivitrol, along with counseling and other services.

Baymark was contracted by Salish Behavioral Health Organization, which is administered by Kitsap County. Company officials have said will take several months to open the center once a location is selected.